Facing low participation, underclassmen-heavy team remains underdog in league

Head Coach: Christian Bonner 

Recap: Key losses and low morale led to a middle-of-the-pack performance during the few virtual meets the league hosted last season.

Key Matchups: Gunn, Lynbrook, Monta Vista

Star Players: Senior Ethan Chan, junior Zeynep Tokuz, sophomore Jarrett Singh

Key losses to graduation: Lukas Peng, Brandon Fong, Taesu Yim

League: De Anza

Prognosis: 

The swim team’s 2020-21 season was characterized by rare triumphs in the face of ever-constant low morale. Individuals like Class of 2021 alumni Lukas Peng continued to score personal bests — even while the team suffered key losses to graduation; the team implemented a split-schedule practice format that minimized COVID-19 exposure but sacrificed team bonding opportunities; and athletes live-streamed and recorded their times in an individual digital meet format, rather than competing side-by-side with other schools.

Though COVID-19 protocols have since decreased, the team has continued to face its fair share of challenges coming into the current season. 

One setback is that the school pool’s pool pump and filter broke, preventing the swim team from using the school pool since late February. Until the repair is completed, which Huynh estimates will be March at the earliest, the team is practicing at West Valley College (WVC) and all meets will be away. Practices have been moved from right after school to 4 to 6 p.m. and mostly function like normal, although WVC pools lack flags and the team is unable to practice backstroke, senior swimmer Ethan Chan said.

Even so, senior Brooke Huynh said practices have been progressing well so far, and the underclassmen have proven “surprising fast.” 

Still, the team suffered a loss during their first meet against Los Altos on March 4.

“It was a bit rough because it was very cold that day,” sophomore Jarrett Singh said. “Since it was our first meet, people are still getting back into the groove of things.”

With the loss of graduated key seniors Peng, Brandon Fong and Taesu Yim, and a significant decline in upperclassmen participation, the team faces a challenging season ahead. 

“[Even with COVID-19], there were definitely more people on the team last year than this year,” Huynh said. “There’s a lot of freshmen and sophomores, but even so, I think there’s definitely a bit of a concern this year because we don’t have as many of our upperclassmen, so some underclassmen don’t know what to do.”

She added that many current seniors who had previously swam for the team for two to three years chose not to this season for personal reasons and a lack of motivation, which “is kind of sad for the team because we did have a lot of older teammates who won’t be able to hype up the underclassmen as much this year.”

Although the team may have fewer members, Huynh said practices returning to normal — as opposed to last year’s system which split the team into two cohorts — has allowed a more supportive and intimate atmosphere.

“We can actually interact with everyone,” Huynh said. “Because of the pandemic last year, we only had two people per lane who would swim on opposite sides — you were pretty much just linked to yourself, which made it a little bit harder because what gets you through the sets is that interaction with others.”